"It is the case that nine months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster is not the time to be expanding our uranium exports," he said earlier today.

Mr Albanese said the fact that India had not signed the NPT and that nuclear waste was difficult to deal with were "two unresolved issues".

"I say that until we have resolved the issues of nuclear proliferation and we have resolved the issue of nuclear waste we should not change our platform to further expand our commitment to the nuclear fuel cycle," he said.

'Dead-letter treaty'

But Australian Workers' Union national secretary Paul Howes said the NPT was a "dead-letter treaty".

"[It's] a treaty which has not stopped the proliferation of nuclear weaponry," he said.

"I believe the 400 million people who live in India without power deserve the right like we do to have powered homes and schools and hospitals."

And Mr Smith says any sales would be overseen by international nuclear regulators.

"The world changed on this matter in 2008 and 2009 and today the Labor Party needs to change as well," he said.

West Australian Opposition Leader Eric Ripper was lobbying strongly for no change.

A group of about 10 anti-uranium protestors had been chanting from the gallery as delegates spoke.

One man was removed from the conference audience for protesting against uranium mining.

Australia currently exports uranium to China, Japan, Taiwan and the United States.

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.